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Qualcomm would be a very delighted company right now. Not only did they win some of the best circles – Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala and Harayana – in the just-concluded BWA auctions but the lone Pan-India BWA spectrum holder, Infotel, backed Qualcomm’s LTE technology and not WiMAX, a rival technology backed by Intel.

In a media briefing held in Delhi a few hours after the provisional BWA auction results were announced, Kanwalinder Singh, president, Qualcomm India and South Asia, senior vice president, Qualcomm Inc tried to convince journalists that LTE as a technology is ready. “To dispel any doubts about LTE, we will have a live LTE demonstration in India before the end of this calendar year,” he said.

However, even if Qualcomm demonstrates an LTE network by the end of 2010, handsets that can run on GSM, WCDMA and LTE (or CDMA/EVDO and LTE) won’t be available till later next year, when US carrier, Verizon Wireless, is expected to announce one. While LTE USB modems will be available much earlier, Qualcomm’s vision of seamless interoperability between three generations of wireless technology won’t come true till those handsets are available.

Even before the auctions began, Qualcomm had clarified that it has no intentions of becoming a carrier in the long run and will eventually exit the venture. It will announce its Indian partner (as required by Indian laws) for the LTE network in about a month’s time and will look at carriers who have won 3G spectrum in last month’s 3G spectrum auction.

“Our intent is to partner only with carriers who have experience in 3G/HSPA networks. We will tie-up with one or more carriers. We don’t have any competition from any carrier in India. They are our partners,” Singh said.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has acquired a 95 per cent stake in little-known company Infotel that has won BWA spectrum in all 22 circles in the just-concluded BWA auctions. “RIL will invest about Rs 4,800 crore by way of subscription to fresh equity capital at par to be issued by Infotel Broadband. Post this investment, RIL will own 95% of the equity and Infotel Broadband will be a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited,” the company said in a statement.

RIL is backing LTE and not WiMAX for its services. “A single 20 MHz TDD spectrum when used with LTE (Long Term Evolution) has the potential of providing greater capacity when compared to existing communication infrastructure in the country,” the statement said.

What’s peculiar about Infotel is that it does not have any 2G or 3G spectrum to offer voice services. This makes it very likely for Infotel to join hands with another carrier (or carriers) as it is the only company to have a Pan-India BWA licence.

The bids for the BWA auctions stood at Rs 12,257.30 crore on 9th June. Mumbai continued to be the most expensive circle with the highest bid value of Rs 2,152.95 crore. The second highest bid of Rs 2,101.02 crore was recorded for Delhi with Tamil Nadu and Karnataka occupying the third and the fourth spots with bidding values of Rs 1,931.06 crore and Rs 1,527.98 crore respectively.

Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh had excess demand by one bidder each. As many as 8 circles were in negative demand zone. The list includes – Uttar Pradesh (West), Rajasthan, Bihar, Orissa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kolkata and Punjab.

It just took 12 days for the BWA auctions to cover the initial base price of Rs 10,000 crore set by the government. On the 12th day of the auction, the bids soared to Rs 10,652.08 crore, assuring the government at least a sum of Rs 31,956 crore from the sale of BWA spectrum.The highest bidding amount was recorded for Mumbai with bidding value crossing Rs 1,800 crore. Delhi occupied the second spot with bidding value of Rs 1,758.29 crore. The third highest and the fourth highest bids were recorded for Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with respective bid amounts of Rs 1,614.48 crore and Rs 1,277.48 crore. Bihar witnessed extra demand by 3 bidders whereas Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had one extra bidder.State-owned operators BSNL and MTNL have already received BWA spectrum by the government. The payment criteria demands these operators to pay similar sum that shall be paid by other private operators after the completion of BWA auctions.Click here to check out the complete report by DoT.